The Firebrand
Prologue: How It Happened
Written by: Scandalous Behavior
~ ~ ~
The embers snapped and popped as the engulfed building fell on itself as the fire rose higher into the midnight sky. The black smoke danced as it lifted and twisted in the night air, while six people watched helplessly while it happened. Kahneta Road would never be the same, the town of Briar Creek was already heading to the fire with the roaring echo of the single fire engine heading this way.
Out of the fire was a girl with her arms holding the figure of an unconscious female, dark hair slipping over the younger girl's arm and as the girl walked down the collapsing porch stairs the six ran up to her. Taking the dark haired girl out of her arms was that girl's brother, Mark. Gently placing the head of his elder sister in his lap as he looked concerned to the girl that had gone into the inferno.
"Is she going to be alright?" his question was the one on everyone's minds.
"Honestly, I wish I could say she was but Mark," the rescuer sighed regretfully, "the blow she took was enough to kill anyone and that she hung on this long is due to her own stubbornness. I'm sorry."
Meaningful glances passed between three girls standing in the group. Each complete opposite of the other that it was hard for anyone to think of them as sisters. The eldest at nineteen was Rowan; gentle, slim, tall with cinnamon-brown eyes and warm brown hair, who swallowed hard at the meaning behind her two younger sisters' looks. One way to save the girl that was their blood-bonded sister would make her into one of them, a vampire, yet she could not fathom that was what Mary-Lynnette Carter would want.
"Are you gonna do it or what?" Kestrel, all golden with eyes amber and hawklike, wondered.
"Please, Rowan, we have to," Jade, the youngest, pushed a straying white- blond hair behind her ear pleading with her green eyes, "think of Ash."
At the mention of Mary-Lynnette's soulmate and their eldest brother, Rowan paused. Having heard that when a soulmate dies it practically destroys the other person Rowan was at an impasse. Her brother would hate to lose Mary- Lynnette and would probably go a little crazy if it happened.
"No,..." Mary-Lynnette's voice came coughing, ".....Don't, Rowan."
Mark couldn't understand why his sister wouldn't want to do this.
"Mare, you are going to die if you don't." Mark protested.
Blue eyes met blue eyes determination in the pits of Mary-Lynnette's.
"I have to........Ally?"
Mark searched out the girl that had saved his sister from burning alive in the Carter family's home only to have her want to die rather than become a creature of the night. Ally, as Mare called her, stopped talking to her two companions and came closer to Mary-Lynnette. Smiling sadly, Ally knelt down.
"Yeah, Mare?"
"Promise you'll be careful, if he finds you again...."
"Mare, don't talk you need to save your strength till we get you to a doctor."
"No.....I won't make it anyhow...I know it," Mare's slightly burnt right hand caught onto Ally's left wrist in a grip that the girl could easily break if she wanted to but chose not to, "promise me you won't take any more foolish chances...he almost got you this time...."
"Stop worrying about me, you stupid human," Ally angrily shouted, that the girl was more worried about keeping Ally safe than the fact that was she laying on the ground dying.
"Ally, don't shout at her." Mark yelled.
"Ash....." Mare's eyes filled with tears at the thought of losing the one guy she loved more than anything, "you have to make me a promise..."
Behind Ally, her two companions watched as Ally could only nod.
"Ash is too strong but this might cause him to do something he'll regret, promise me you'll make sure he doesn't.....He won't listen to anyone and you are the only one I know that is like him...."
"Mare, you don't know what you're asking...."
"Promise me, Ally."
No way of knowing just how much that would eventually cost her, Ally agreed.
Mare let her grip on the other girl's wrist loosen. As cars pulled up, the Sheriff along with Fire Department were running out. Water blasted at the too far gone house while an ambulance skidded to a stop as Ally watched the girl she considered one of her only true friends breath in one last time and then her whole body went limp. In the eyes of the three vampire sisters were tears as was Mark's as his sister died, one of Jade's hands in his unoccupied one that still held Mary-Lynnette's head. Ally used a finger to brush the tears that welled up away before standing, turning on the heel of her black leather boot clad foot and cast her companions a menacing glare.
"He'll pay for this, I swear."
The only other guy of the group seemed about the same age group as Ally, around seventeen, with green-black hair that was long in the front falling into his eyes a lot and emotionless black-colored eyes watched the girl who was his protector. While beside him was a brown-blond haired girl with a cat-like grace eyes dilating into slits of dark gray, hostility and anger in every edge of the lioness shifter's body.
"What the hell happened here?! Is everyone alright?" Sheriff Akers interrupted.
Then the wail from the Carter adults as Mary-Lynnette's dad and step-mom Claudine found out that their home was gone and Mary-Lynnette had been caught in the fire and was now dead. Being pushed away from Mary-Lynnette, Ally stood with the chill of death seeming to beckon to her. An accusing glare came from Mr. Carter's matching blue eyes belonging to those of both his children onto Ally's person.
"You did this, didn't you? We invite you into our home and now we've lost Mary-Lynnette and our home."
The attack came so sudden on Ally she couldn't say anything but when her male companion stood in the way between Mr. Carter and her, she only felt guiltier.
"Ally saved Mary-Lynnette from burning to death in your home." Drake defended, rage outlining his aura to an almost blood red that only Ally could see.
"Dad, it's true. Mare would have been burned alive if Ally hadn't saved her. Don't blame her, Dad. Mare didn't." Mark begged standing and taking his father's arm.
"I want you gone and if I ever see you around here again...." Mr. Carter threatened even as Sheriff Akers came up and heard.
"You won't, Mr. Carter," Ally swore, "I never meant to hurt any of you and especially not Mary-Lynnette."
A growl came from Leona, who put an arm around Ally's shoulders and led her away with Drake. Mark could only watch helplessly as the girl he came to love as another sister left. His eyes caught Jade's and she held out her hand in comfort. Taking it in his, Mark knew that things were going to be different from now on.
~
Las Vegas, Nevada
As vividly as if he was there, Ash Redfern saw it. The home of his beloved Mary-Lynnette burning, her body on the leaves outside the presence in the back of his mind that connected him to her, the silver-cord was severed and he felt like he was dying. Like watching a movie the entire thing played back in his mind, as he was watching it happen through Mare's eyes.
Waking up from the afternoon nap she had taken because of how exhausting winter finals were, she headed down stairs in plain jeans, slip on sneakers and a blue sweater that made her blue eyes that much bluer. Hearing the commotion coming from the backyard where Mark, Ally, Drake and Leona were gathering leaves into black plastic bags her eyes rested on the kitchen window above the sink that overlooked the backyard. People she had never seen were crowded around the four she knew with fighting stances that told her they weren't friendly. Grabbing a stake that she had learned to have around whenever she went out, she slipped it into her back pocket of her jeans.
Too occupied with the four that were in the center of the circle, the leader didn't sense Mary-Lynnette open the screen door and close it softly. Standing on the porch not making a sound as she watched.
Ally's face was twisted by anger and such a deep hatred that Mary-Lynnette felt it as if the hatred was something tangible. Usually the girl that she had met only two months ago was easy-going with a acid-tongue when people angered her never had she thought Ally capable of the utter hatred that was directed at the leader.
His presence was etched in her mind. Everything around him seemed to fade into black, that he had such a power over things that despair followed in his wake. Dressed in black from head to toe, a black silk shirt that was unbuttoned half way down his sculpted chest, black clinging black leather pants, and black boots. What caught her attention was how he presented himself as if the whole situation amused him and infuriated him all in one. Black hair that had no shine to it, straight black devoid of a real color, with ivory toned skin and eyes the color of icicles. All his words were directed at Ally, his voice soft almost lover-like.
"Come, Sirena, you didn't think that I would just let you go did you? How very amusing of you."
"Why don't you take a long walk off a short pier?"
"That hurt, sweetheart, really it did."
"What the hell do you want, Loki?"
"What don't I want? To rule, to be on top, to not have interfering teenagers that are too old to play these games around."
"Anyone I know?"
"Funny, Sirena, but let's just say your predicament is a tad different than last time," his voice went from soft to hard in a blink of an eye, "you won't be tricking me again."
"And how is that? Last time I check you were too dense to not fall for a trick."
Mary-Lynnette thought that maybe Ally shouldn't have said that as the second it came out of the girl's mouth the guy, Loki, raised his hand and it was a gang up of people too beautiful to be human which meant vampires attacked. Instantly Ally went into defense mode and the girl easily killed five vampires with the small twig she had kept in her hand from picking up leaves. Even Mark was doing well, until two vampires caught him between them and a blow to the head sent him sprawling to the dirt ground. Leona changed into a huge two hundred-pound lioness in mid-leap onto a pack of five vamps, as green fire seemed to spring from Drake's hand incinerating vampires.
With speed that was inhuman and faster than even a vampire's reflexes Loki had Ally caught against the porch, a hand at her throat.
"Where's your tricks now, you little witch?"
"Why don't you go find yourself a hobby, Loki?"
"You are my hobby, such an imperfect soul. Not human, not creature. You belong no where, you are past being a freak to being an anomaly a bane on life itself. Thinking you can protect that worthless boy from me. Me, Loki."
His grip tightened and as Ally felt blood rush to her head, his grip was gone and Ally caught her hands on her knees to keep herself up from collapsing. To the left of her was Loki on the ground with Mary-Lynnette having tackled him.
"Mare!" Ally screamed, as Loki picked up the human girl and literally threw her into the house. Wood sprayed as the power behind the throw caused Mary- Lynnette to go right through the kitchen wall into the house.
Ally ran into the house only to have a force throw her away from it. Landing in the last instant on her feet, Loki cocked an arrogant eyebrow.
"You're little friend seems to think she can rebel against me to save you. Tell me, Sirena, do you like me killing your friends?"
As he spoke a huge red and yellow light jumped in his hand turning into pure fire as he threw it casually into the house that it exploded upon impact on the wooden roof. Seething with rage, she fought against him landing blows only to have him block the rest with ease. Gripping her thin gray T-shirt he brought her up to him, a smirk raising the corner of his mouth.
"Till we meet again, my sorceress." His lips moved over hers in a kiss that revolved her before he vanished.
Jerking back from his still lingering aura, she immediately thought of Mary- Lynnette and ran into the house blocking out the verbal protests as well as the telepath ones.
Finding Mary-Lynnette's body angled on the kitchen tile floor as flames licked at the building causing wood to come crashing down around them. Gathering Mare in her arms, Ally headed out a spell in her mind that she repeated over and over that dissipated the flames that came within a foot of her as she walked out onto the porch and down the stairs. Mark rushed over and took Mary-Lynnette.
All of it played back that Ally had made a promise to watch him and then Mary-Lynnette had died. To protect that girl, the one that had caused Mare to put her life on the line for someone being sought after by someone whose power was unlike anyone's he had felt before.
Ash Redfern woke up covered in sweat, the covers on the bed of his room in the Elder Thierry's mansion were tossed half way across the room from his tossing at the dream he now knew as truth. The one person he truly loved was dead thanks to a girl named Ally.
~ ~ ~
So brings my story...so what did you think? More to come soon. Just the beginning.
~Scandal~
December 2, 2001
Prologue: How It Happened
Written by: Scandalous Behavior
~ ~ ~
The embers snapped and popped as the engulfed building fell on itself as the fire rose higher into the midnight sky. The black smoke danced as it lifted and twisted in the night air, while six people watched helplessly while it happened. Kahneta Road would never be the same, the town of Briar Creek was already heading to the fire with the roaring echo of the single fire engine heading this way.
Out of the fire was a girl with her arms holding the figure of an unconscious female, dark hair slipping over the younger girl's arm and as the girl walked down the collapsing porch stairs the six ran up to her. Taking the dark haired girl out of her arms was that girl's brother, Mark. Gently placing the head of his elder sister in his lap as he looked concerned to the girl that had gone into the inferno.
"Is she going to be alright?" his question was the one on everyone's minds.
"Honestly, I wish I could say she was but Mark," the rescuer sighed regretfully, "the blow she took was enough to kill anyone and that she hung on this long is due to her own stubbornness. I'm sorry."
Meaningful glances passed between three girls standing in the group. Each complete opposite of the other that it was hard for anyone to think of them as sisters. The eldest at nineteen was Rowan; gentle, slim, tall with cinnamon-brown eyes and warm brown hair, who swallowed hard at the meaning behind her two younger sisters' looks. One way to save the girl that was their blood-bonded sister would make her into one of them, a vampire, yet she could not fathom that was what Mary-Lynnette Carter would want.
"Are you gonna do it or what?" Kestrel, all golden with eyes amber and hawklike, wondered.
"Please, Rowan, we have to," Jade, the youngest, pushed a straying white- blond hair behind her ear pleading with her green eyes, "think of Ash."
At the mention of Mary-Lynnette's soulmate and their eldest brother, Rowan paused. Having heard that when a soulmate dies it practically destroys the other person Rowan was at an impasse. Her brother would hate to lose Mary- Lynnette and would probably go a little crazy if it happened.
"No,..." Mary-Lynnette's voice came coughing, ".....Don't, Rowan."
Mark couldn't understand why his sister wouldn't want to do this.
"Mare, you are going to die if you don't." Mark protested.
Blue eyes met blue eyes determination in the pits of Mary-Lynnette's.
"I have to........Ally?"
Mark searched out the girl that had saved his sister from burning alive in the Carter family's home only to have her want to die rather than become a creature of the night. Ally, as Mare called her, stopped talking to her two companions and came closer to Mary-Lynnette. Smiling sadly, Ally knelt down.
"Yeah, Mare?"
"Promise you'll be careful, if he finds you again...."
"Mare, don't talk you need to save your strength till we get you to a doctor."
"No.....I won't make it anyhow...I know it," Mare's slightly burnt right hand caught onto Ally's left wrist in a grip that the girl could easily break if she wanted to but chose not to, "promise me you won't take any more foolish chances...he almost got you this time...."
"Stop worrying about me, you stupid human," Ally angrily shouted, that the girl was more worried about keeping Ally safe than the fact that was she laying on the ground dying.
"Ally, don't shout at her." Mark yelled.
"Ash....." Mare's eyes filled with tears at the thought of losing the one guy she loved more than anything, "you have to make me a promise..."
Behind Ally, her two companions watched as Ally could only nod.
"Ash is too strong but this might cause him to do something he'll regret, promise me you'll make sure he doesn't.....He won't listen to anyone and you are the only one I know that is like him...."
"Mare, you don't know what you're asking...."
"Promise me, Ally."
No way of knowing just how much that would eventually cost her, Ally agreed.
Mare let her grip on the other girl's wrist loosen. As cars pulled up, the Sheriff along with Fire Department were running out. Water blasted at the too far gone house while an ambulance skidded to a stop as Ally watched the girl she considered one of her only true friends breath in one last time and then her whole body went limp. In the eyes of the three vampire sisters were tears as was Mark's as his sister died, one of Jade's hands in his unoccupied one that still held Mary-Lynnette's head. Ally used a finger to brush the tears that welled up away before standing, turning on the heel of her black leather boot clad foot and cast her companions a menacing glare.
"He'll pay for this, I swear."
The only other guy of the group seemed about the same age group as Ally, around seventeen, with green-black hair that was long in the front falling into his eyes a lot and emotionless black-colored eyes watched the girl who was his protector. While beside him was a brown-blond haired girl with a cat-like grace eyes dilating into slits of dark gray, hostility and anger in every edge of the lioness shifter's body.
"What the hell happened here?! Is everyone alright?" Sheriff Akers interrupted.
Then the wail from the Carter adults as Mary-Lynnette's dad and step-mom Claudine found out that their home was gone and Mary-Lynnette had been caught in the fire and was now dead. Being pushed away from Mary-Lynnette, Ally stood with the chill of death seeming to beckon to her. An accusing glare came from Mr. Carter's matching blue eyes belonging to those of both his children onto Ally's person.
"You did this, didn't you? We invite you into our home and now we've lost Mary-Lynnette and our home."
The attack came so sudden on Ally she couldn't say anything but when her male companion stood in the way between Mr. Carter and her, she only felt guiltier.
"Ally saved Mary-Lynnette from burning to death in your home." Drake defended, rage outlining his aura to an almost blood red that only Ally could see.
"Dad, it's true. Mare would have been burned alive if Ally hadn't saved her. Don't blame her, Dad. Mare didn't." Mark begged standing and taking his father's arm.
"I want you gone and if I ever see you around here again...." Mr. Carter threatened even as Sheriff Akers came up and heard.
"You won't, Mr. Carter," Ally swore, "I never meant to hurt any of you and especially not Mary-Lynnette."
A growl came from Leona, who put an arm around Ally's shoulders and led her away with Drake. Mark could only watch helplessly as the girl he came to love as another sister left. His eyes caught Jade's and she held out her hand in comfort. Taking it in his, Mark knew that things were going to be different from now on.
~
Las Vegas, Nevada
As vividly as if he was there, Ash Redfern saw it. The home of his beloved Mary-Lynnette burning, her body on the leaves outside the presence in the back of his mind that connected him to her, the silver-cord was severed and he felt like he was dying. Like watching a movie the entire thing played back in his mind, as he was watching it happen through Mare's eyes.
Waking up from the afternoon nap she had taken because of how exhausting winter finals were, she headed down stairs in plain jeans, slip on sneakers and a blue sweater that made her blue eyes that much bluer. Hearing the commotion coming from the backyard where Mark, Ally, Drake and Leona were gathering leaves into black plastic bags her eyes rested on the kitchen window above the sink that overlooked the backyard. People she had never seen were crowded around the four she knew with fighting stances that told her they weren't friendly. Grabbing a stake that she had learned to have around whenever she went out, she slipped it into her back pocket of her jeans.
Too occupied with the four that were in the center of the circle, the leader didn't sense Mary-Lynnette open the screen door and close it softly. Standing on the porch not making a sound as she watched.
Ally's face was twisted by anger and such a deep hatred that Mary-Lynnette felt it as if the hatred was something tangible. Usually the girl that she had met only two months ago was easy-going with a acid-tongue when people angered her never had she thought Ally capable of the utter hatred that was directed at the leader.
His presence was etched in her mind. Everything around him seemed to fade into black, that he had such a power over things that despair followed in his wake. Dressed in black from head to toe, a black silk shirt that was unbuttoned half way down his sculpted chest, black clinging black leather pants, and black boots. What caught her attention was how he presented himself as if the whole situation amused him and infuriated him all in one. Black hair that had no shine to it, straight black devoid of a real color, with ivory toned skin and eyes the color of icicles. All his words were directed at Ally, his voice soft almost lover-like.
"Come, Sirena, you didn't think that I would just let you go did you? How very amusing of you."
"Why don't you take a long walk off a short pier?"
"That hurt, sweetheart, really it did."
"What the hell do you want, Loki?"
"What don't I want? To rule, to be on top, to not have interfering teenagers that are too old to play these games around."
"Anyone I know?"
"Funny, Sirena, but let's just say your predicament is a tad different than last time," his voice went from soft to hard in a blink of an eye, "you won't be tricking me again."
"And how is that? Last time I check you were too dense to not fall for a trick."
Mary-Lynnette thought that maybe Ally shouldn't have said that as the second it came out of the girl's mouth the guy, Loki, raised his hand and it was a gang up of people too beautiful to be human which meant vampires attacked. Instantly Ally went into defense mode and the girl easily killed five vampires with the small twig she had kept in her hand from picking up leaves. Even Mark was doing well, until two vampires caught him between them and a blow to the head sent him sprawling to the dirt ground. Leona changed into a huge two hundred-pound lioness in mid-leap onto a pack of five vamps, as green fire seemed to spring from Drake's hand incinerating vampires.
With speed that was inhuman and faster than even a vampire's reflexes Loki had Ally caught against the porch, a hand at her throat.
"Where's your tricks now, you little witch?"
"Why don't you go find yourself a hobby, Loki?"
"You are my hobby, such an imperfect soul. Not human, not creature. You belong no where, you are past being a freak to being an anomaly a bane on life itself. Thinking you can protect that worthless boy from me. Me, Loki."
His grip tightened and as Ally felt blood rush to her head, his grip was gone and Ally caught her hands on her knees to keep herself up from collapsing. To the left of her was Loki on the ground with Mary-Lynnette having tackled him.
"Mare!" Ally screamed, as Loki picked up the human girl and literally threw her into the house. Wood sprayed as the power behind the throw caused Mary- Lynnette to go right through the kitchen wall into the house.
Ally ran into the house only to have a force throw her away from it. Landing in the last instant on her feet, Loki cocked an arrogant eyebrow.
"You're little friend seems to think she can rebel against me to save you. Tell me, Sirena, do you like me killing your friends?"
As he spoke a huge red and yellow light jumped in his hand turning into pure fire as he threw it casually into the house that it exploded upon impact on the wooden roof. Seething with rage, she fought against him landing blows only to have him block the rest with ease. Gripping her thin gray T-shirt he brought her up to him, a smirk raising the corner of his mouth.
"Till we meet again, my sorceress." His lips moved over hers in a kiss that revolved her before he vanished.
Jerking back from his still lingering aura, she immediately thought of Mary- Lynnette and ran into the house blocking out the verbal protests as well as the telepath ones.
Finding Mary-Lynnette's body angled on the kitchen tile floor as flames licked at the building causing wood to come crashing down around them. Gathering Mare in her arms, Ally headed out a spell in her mind that she repeated over and over that dissipated the flames that came within a foot of her as she walked out onto the porch and down the stairs. Mark rushed over and took Mary-Lynnette.
All of it played back that Ally had made a promise to watch him and then Mary-Lynnette had died. To protect that girl, the one that had caused Mare to put her life on the line for someone being sought after by someone whose power was unlike anyone's he had felt before.
Ash Redfern woke up covered in sweat, the covers on the bed of his room in the Elder Thierry's mansion were tossed half way across the room from his tossing at the dream he now knew as truth. The one person he truly loved was dead thanks to a girl named Ally.
~ ~ ~
So brings my story...so what did you think? More to come soon. Just the beginning.
~Scandal~
December 2, 2001